Meet-ups are the heart and soul of any community where people actually realize that they are not alone in the world.
Dan Larimer
When you attend Steemit meet-ups, Steemit becomes more real to you. You get to understand that those people behind those avatars are real people with real stories. You begin to see needs and opportunities that were hitherto hidden from you.
In the past four months, there have been over 10 steem meetups organized locationaly in Uganda. Some people have the belief that one does not necessarily learn anything from these meetups and that they are a waste of productive time. If you’re of this belief, you’re not wrong from your own perspective. It all depends on what is most important to you. I will only try to show you a big picture so you can redefine your perspective on this issue.
Most meetups are not tailored for learning how to get more money on steemit but I can say that most are specifically tailored for exposure, deliberately or not
i'll explain further
I have been privileged to assist in the organization of a number of steemit meetups and here are a few things that I think you will be exposed to in most meetups:
You will learn more things about steemit.
A Meet-up is a great place to learn too. I always learn that I am very unlearned in some areas when I meet my fellow steemians in Ugandda. Everyone has something unique. The market is big and vast. No one can know everything. If you are a guru it's a great way to extend your sphere of influence and teach people.
You will know that you're are Not Alone
When we go for a meetup, That's when you know that all members have same goal in this platform which is we want to grow and become better steemians. Knowing that you are not alone in the struggle somehow makes the pain feel a little less heavy. To know the fact that we can share same struggle in steemit, we know we can overcome it.
You will be exposed to new ideas.
In reality, meeting your fellow steemian most often has a beneficial impact on one’s ability to come up with creative ideas, finding better solutions to steemit problems you may have been unable to solve previously, as well as to simply help with finding new partnerships opportunities, which otherwise would never have existed.
Meetups foster Community Growth
Without meetups, I don’t believe much of the growth in 
You will meet people who will challenge and make you sit up and inspire you to do more.
When you attend meet-ups, it will give you the opportunity to meet with people of great minds who would help you with information that is vital to your growth. You get to interact and make collaborations, build bonds based on shared value and vision.
Conclusion.
Meet ups are more than learning platforms.
To come back to the belief that I am trying to debunk, Steemit meetups are only a waste of time if you do not know why you are there. With the things written above, I hope I have been able to show you the true importance of attending meetups. Being a strong steemian, have attended meetups that didn’t have anything at all to do with steemit and I still call the day a success because to me, meetups are not primarily for learning (except specific training), they are for exposure.
If you are going to meetups to learn everything you need to be a steemit whale, then OYO lo wa…lol.
What are meetups to you? If it is not listed above, you can add to the comments below.
Thank you for reading. Do share to people you think the words here might help redefine their perspective to attending steemit meetups.